Birmingham Cuneiform Texts – Translations Part 1

Birmingham Cuneiform Texts – Translations Part 1: Neo-Sumerian tablets from Drehem
total: 77 woven garments,
their ……. wool 3 talents 51 [minas];
total: 44 ordinary quality linen (garments),
their thread 880 balls.
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Grand total: 286 (wool) and linen garments;
grand total: 21 talents 8⅔ minas of ……wool;
grand total: 3 talents 51 minas of …….wool;
grand total 880 balls of thread;
total 90½ female worker-(months).
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Weaving work over 11 months,
(and) 4 talents 38 minas 8 shekels of poor quality wool,
brought to the palace
(as) tribute textiles on the account of the city
(by) Ea-Bani, governor of Eresh.
Intercalary month of cutting barley (month 12bis),
Year after Simurrum was raided for the third time (Shulgi 33).
Verified by Mashgula, the officer.
Note
The accounting maths used in this text may need some explanation.
Interpret the first four lines as: it takes a team of 4 women 2 months to make 2 nilamgarments
using 3⅓ minas of wool for each garment.
Line 31 tells us that the weaving work was done over 11 months.
Therefore in 11 months this team of 4 women would make 11 garments (as per the
total in line 18) and use 36⅔ minas of wool (as per the total in line 19).
The rest of the totals follow this same pattern and are correct.
The grand totals in lines 26-29 are simple summations of the relevant materials.
The total for the female workers however is incorrect as this should be 143 for the
amount of work done. The scribe seems not to have used the 11 month period to
calculate the total but rather seems to have multiplied the size of the team by the
monthly production, respectively 16, 56, 7 and 16 (i.e. 95) minus 1½ and 2 for the
PA.URU and those who were ill which would leave 91½ as opposed to the scribe’s
90½. Thus he seems to have made a mathematical error as well as an accounting
error!
BCT1, 135 = 1982A1392
Surplus: 7 gur 200 sila of barley in the royal-gur measure;
barley allowance of the stewards
and barley of the DU.U encampment
to be returned to the carriers(?).
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Month of the lamentation of Ninazu (month 4),
Year Amar-Sin became king (Amar-Sin 1).
BCT1, 136 = 1982A1377
20 gur of barley in the royal-gur measure
for the first time;
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